33$ 


UNIVERSITY  OF  LUNOtt^WBANA 


3  0112  062004848 


Additional  Burdens  upon  Street 
Railway  Companies. 


ADDRESSES 


BY 


HENRY    M.    WHITNEY.    ESQ. 


BEFORE  THE 


Central  Club,  Somerville,  April  30,  1891,  and  the  Roxbury 
Club,  Boston,  May  9,  1891. 


BOSTON : 

PKKSS    OF    SAMUKL     I  SHKU, 

171  Devonshire  Street. 

1891. 


3?5 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  the  CENTRAL  CLUB,  SOMERYILLE 

APRIL    30,    1891. 


Mr.    President,    and    Gentlemen    of    the    City    op 
somerville  :  — 

I  am  very  glad  of  the  opportunity  of  meeting  with  the 
people  of  Somerville,  or  of  any  other  section  of  the  suburbs 
of  Boston  with  which  the  West  End  Street  Railway  has 
connection,  l>ecause  the  subject  of  transportation  is  one 
of  the  most  important  subjects  with  which  the  community  is 
concerned,  and  I  think  I  may  say  that  it  is  a  subject  about 
which  as  little  is  understood  as  almost  any  other  subject  that 
the  community  discusses. 

I  had  occasion  last  year,  in  view  of  certain  comparisons 
that  I  knew  would  be  made  before  the  present  Legislature  of 
the  system  of  transportation  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts 
with  the  systems  of  transportation  in  other  States,  and 
especially  in  foreign  countries,  to  make  a  very  careful  inves- 
tigation of  the  transportation  question  in  other  cities  and  in 
other  countries  in  comparison  with  the  transportation  system 
in  use  here  ;  and  I  found  so  closely  connected  was  the  ques- 
tion of  transportation  with  the  social  life  of  the  community 
that  I  became  exceedingly  interested  in  the  manner  of  life  of 
foreign  peoples  as  bearing  upon  this  question  of  transporta- 
tion. I  have  never  been  across  the  water,  and  all  that  I  know 
of  the  transportation  system  in  Europe  or  of  the  social  life  of 
these  cities  I  have  gained  from  an  examination  of  the  statis- 
tics furnished  me  by  the  people  whom  I  have  sent  to  investi- 
gate the  subject  and  the  papers  that  I  have  had  sent  to  me 
since. 

The  system  of  transportation  in  Berlin  has  often  been 
referred  to  as  a  system  very  desirable  to  have  established 
here,  and  it  was  in  view  of  that  fact  that  I  gave  to  the  sub- 
ject of  transportation  and  social  life  in  Berlin  the  most 
careful  study.     Now,  the  social  life  in  Berlin  is  so  entirely 


V^^^l^ 


different  fronj  the  social  life  of  which  the  city  of  Somerville 
knows  anything  as  to  be  almost  beyond  belief.  I  found  by 
reference  to  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  that  in  1872 
there  were  55  persons  to  every  house  in  the  city  of  Berlin. 
Now,  I  find  that  by  the  last  census  in  the  city  of  Somerville 
the  number  of  people  to  a  house  in  Somerville  was  5.90. 
Following  the  same  tendency,  I  was  sure,  that  had  been 
observed  from  1861  to  1872,  the  number  of  people  under 
one  roof  in  Berlin  has  grown  to  the  number  of  66.  Now, 
there  are  in  the  whole  city  of  Berlin  but  26,800  dwelling- 
houses,  with  a  population  of  1,315,000  people.  There  are 
absolutely  but  one  half  as  many  dwellings  in  the  city  of 
Berlin  as  there  are  in  the  city  of  Boston  with  one  third  of 
its  population.  There  is  absolutely  no  such  thing  in  Berlin, 
or  Hamburg,  or  Munich,  or  Leipsic,  or  Frankfort,  or  any  of 
those  German  cities,  as  suburbs.  The  people  live  in  these 
tenement-houses  and  in  cellars  and  in  garrets,  herded  together 
in  the  most  distressing  manner. 

At  the  time  I  spoke  before  the  Committee  on  Cities  of  the 
Legislature  I  was  unable  to  find  any  statistics  which  would 
throw  any  light  upon  the  subject  later  than  those  contained 
in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  which  brought  them  down 
to  1872;  but  only  last  week  a  friend  of  mine,  who  was 
in  Washington,  brought  me  one  of  the  reports  from  the 
consuls  of  the  United  States.  It  is  Consular  Document  No. 
98,  issued  in  October,  1888,  and  contains  in  the  last  part  of 
the  volume  some  exceedingly  interesting  translations  from 
distinguished  Germans  upon  the  homes  of  the  German  work- 
ing people  ;  and  I  hope  I  shall  not  weary  you  by  reading 
from  this  paper  some  of  the  facts  connected  with  the  social 
life  of  Berlin  and  other  cities. 

Here  is  an  article  —  these  are  all  translations  from  Ger- 
man papers  —  translated  by  James  Henry  Smith,  United 
States  consular  agent  at  Mayence  :  "  The  tmiement,  or  flat, 
system  of  dwelling  prevails  in  Germany,  and  a  whole  house 
occupied  by  but  a  single  family  is  a  rarity."  Now,  in  the 
great  city  of  Berlin  of  1,315,000  inhabitants,  in  1885  there 
were  but  2,820  private  houses,  and  in  the  city  of  Somerville 


there  are  almost  7,000 ;  and  in  the  city  of  Leipsie,  a  city  of 
almost  150,000  inhabitants,  there  were  of  private  houses 
only  148.  "  This  naturally  leads  to  an  overfilling  of  houses, 
and  in  the  large  cities  to  the  massing  of  the  lower  classes  in 
the  old  tenements  as  they  become  abandoned  by  the  people  of 
means  for  newer  structures.  In  time  this  herding  together, 
as  the  buildings  become  even  more  rickety,  gets  to  be  a  pub- 
lic evil.  They  are  let  and  sublet  until  they  become  per- 
fectly packed  with  tenants  and  subtenants,  and  through 
overcrowding,  uncleanliness,  bad  drainage,  and  lack  of  ven- 
tilation, they  become,  in  a  place  like  Berlin,  for  instance, 
perfect  pest-holes  and  generators  of  all  kinds  of  disease  and 
infirmity." 

There  were  of  underground,  or  cellar,  tenements  in  the 
city  of  Berlin,  in  1880,  23,289,  and'  in  those  cellar  tenements 
lived  a  population  of  100,827.  There  were  of  garret  tene- 
ments 10,416,  and  there  lived  in  those  garret  tenements 
39,019  people — almost  as  many  people  as  in  this  city  of 
Somerville  dwelt  in  the  city  of  Berlin  in  garret  tenements. 

That  overcrowding  of  tenements  in  general  is  evident  from 
this,  that  in  Berlin  in  1880,  out  of  a  population  of  1,122,330, 
there  were  478,052  persons  living  in  tenements  of  but  one 
room  that  could  be  heated,  or  an  average  of  3.75  inmates  to 
a  room ;  302,322  living  in  tenements  possessing  but  two 
rooms  that  could  be  heated,  or  an  average  of  2.23  to  a  room, 
and  127,346  in  tenements  with  three  rooms  that  could  be 
heated,  or  an  average  of  1.56  to  a  room.  There  were  thus 
907,720  inhabitants  of  Berlin,  out  of  a  population  of  1,122,- 
330,  or  more  than  three  fourths  of  the  entire  number  of  peo- 
ple, dwelling  in  tenements  having  not  more  than  three  rooms 
that  could  be  heated,  and  having  on  an  average  S.51  inmates 
to  a  room.  In  some  of  the  other  cities  it  was  even  worse 
than  this.  For  Leipsie  in  1880  the  figures  were  even  higher 
than  for  Breslau,  being  3.84,  2.53,  and  1.80  persons  in  a  room 
in  the  three  categories  respectively ;  and  Breslau  was  higher 
than  Berlin,  being  3.84  to  a  room.  "  Only  29,323  of  the 
large  population  of  Berlin  lived  in  tenements  having  eight 
or  more  rooms  to  a  tenement ;  only  3,550  in  Breslau  in  such 
tenements,  out  of  the  population  of  272,000." 


I  have  referred,  to  these  cellar  tenements.  It  is  astonish- 
ing how  people  can  live  in  such  places.  These  are  all  below 
the  street.  Thirteen  and  three-tenths  per  cent,  of  them  were 
less  than  3.28  feet  below  the  outside  sidewalk ;  38  per  cent, 
were  four  to  five  feet  below  the  sidewalk  ;  10  per  cent,  were 
five  to  five  and  a  half  feet  below,  and  5.9  per  cent,  were  five 
and  a  half  to  six  and  a  half  feet  below  the  sidewalk.  The 
people  often  do  their  work  there,  and  they  sleep  there  and 
they  live  there. 

Now,  how  do  the  rents  compare  ?  How  do  the  rents  in 
this  great  city  of  Berlin,  in  these  miserable  tenements,  com- 
pare with  the  rent  or  the  cost  of  a  small  house,  or  with  the 
cost  of  the  larger  number  of  houses  in  the  city  of  Boston, 
and  possibly  in  the  city  of  Somerville  ?  There  were,  in  1890, 
in  the  city  of  Boston,  something  over  50,000  houses,  accord- 
ing to  the  estimate  of  the  assessors  of  Boston  given  in  the 
auditor's  report.  I  hold  in  ray  hand  the  report  of  the  year 
1889-90.  The  number  of  dwelling-houses,  exclusive  of  hotels 
and  family  hotels,  in  the  city  of  Boston  for  that  year  was 
49,716,  and  the  number  of  houses  of  the  value  of  $3,000  and 
less  was  21,846.  Take  the  cost  of  these  houses  and  estimate 
them  at  5  per  cent.  Of  course  the  interest  on  the  cost  of  a 
house  is  $150,  and  the  taxes,  say  $50,  making  the  whole 
$200,  varying  with  the  cost  of  the  house.  Now,  the  cost  of 
these  tenements  in  the  city  of  Berlin  varies  as  follows :  in 
the  cellar  tenements  in  1875  the  rent  of  a  cellar  tenement 
was  $111  for  a  single  tenement,  the  ground  floor  was  $234, 
the  second  story  $216,  and  the  garret  $70. 

So  far  as  I  am  able  to  judge,  the  cost  of  one  of  these 
tenements  in  the  city  of  Berlin  is  almost  as  much  as  the 
cost  of  the  largest  proportion,  or  one  half  at  least,  of  the 
houses  in  and  about  the  city  of  Boston.  The  fact  is  that  in 
the  city  of  Boston,  and  I  dare  say  it  must  be  so  in  the  city  of 
Somerville,  the  cost  to  the  people  of  Somerville  of  a  whole 
house  is  not  much  more,  upon  the  average,  than  the  cost  of 
a  single  tenement  in  the  city  of  Berlin.  Well,  now,  these 
people  are  obliged  to  live  so,  in  the  first  place,  because  their 
income  does  not  permit  them  to  live  in  any  other  way  in  the 


city  of  Berlin.  It  comes  back  to  that  in  the  end  —  the 
income  of  these  people.  It  varies  from  twenty-five  to  seventy- 
five  cents  a  day.  In  one  of  these  papers  is  given  a  list  of 
the  weekly  wages  of  1885,  a  list  of  wages  that  are  received 
by  people  in  the  different  trades.  The  weekly  wages,  for 
instance,  at  Leipsic,  in  the  general  trades,  are  given  at  the 
following  figures  per  week.  These  are  all  translations  from 
German  papers  and  I  assume  they  are  correct :  blacksmith, 
11  hours  per  day,  $4.28  to  $5.47  per  week ;  coopers,  $4.04  to 
$4.09 ;  masons,  11  hours  per  day,  $4.88  to  $6.20  per  week ; 
saddlers,  $3.57  to  $4.99 ;  hodcarriers,  11  hours  per  day,  $2.38 
to  $3.57  per  week.  Now,  that  is  a  specimen.  Those  are  the 
facts  connected  with  the  social  life  of  the  people  of  Berlin, 
and  substantially  of  every  city  throughout  Germany,  so  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain  by  careful  observation  of 
these  statistics. 

Now,  the  social  life  of  these  communities  in  Massachusetts 
and  these  United  States  is  so  entirely  different  as  to  be 
almost  incomprehensible.  I  procured  from  the  bureau  of 
statistics  a  sheet  showing  certain  statistics  relating  to  the 
social  life  and  population  of  the  cities  and  towns  in  the 
State  of  Massachusetts  for  the  last  census,  and  I  found,  as 
I  stated  before,  that  in  1890  the  number  of  persons  to  a 
house  in  the  city  of  Somerville  was  5.90,  and  I  found  that 
it  had  absolutely  fallen  —  that  while  in  1880,  the  time  of 
taking  the  last  census,  it  was  reported  at  6.07,  in  1890  the 
number  of  persons  to  a  dwelling  had  fallen  to  5.90,  showing 
that  there  had  been  an  increase  in  the  dwellings  among  the 
poorer  classes,  and  that  there  was  absolutely  a  less  number  of 
people  in  a  house,  on  the  average,  than  there  was  ten  years  ago. 
Finding  this  proportion  was  so  small,  I  was  curious  to  see  how 
this  compared  with  the  number  of  people  living  in  the  agri- 
cultural communities.  I  was  unable  to  get  the  complete 
census  for  1890,  but  the  census  for  1880,  which  I  happened 
to  have  in  my  library,  is  as  follows :  in  the  State  of  Illinois 
the  number  of  persons  to  a  dwelling  is  5.72 ;  in  Indiana,  5.47 ; 
Ohio,  5.45;  in  Pennsylvania,  5.73;  in  Kentucky,  5.87.  Well, 
now,  that  is  a  most  astonishing  record  to  me,  that  in  the  city 


8 

of  Somerville,  of  40,000  inhabitants,  within  five  miles  of  a 
great  city,  the  people  of  this  city  should  be  able  to  live  in 
such  a  manner  as  this,  and  that  the  life  in  this  community  is 
so  nearly  the  life  that  is  led  by  these  agricultural  communi- 
ties as  these  statistics  show  it  to  be.  I  found  that  in  the 
city  of  Boston  in  1880  the  number  of  persons  to  a  dwelling 
was  8.26,  while  it  had  increased  in  the  last  ten  years  to  9.82. 
In  Cambridge  it  was  6.38  in  1880,  and  6.58  in  1890.  The 
cities  of  Lowell  and  Lawrence,  large  manufacturing  centres, 
are  places  where  you  might  expect  to  find  the  people  crowded 
into  tenements,  if  you  would  expect  it  anywhere  in  the  State 
of  Massachusetts,  but  even  in  the  city  of  Lowell  there  were 
only  6.86  people  to  a  dwelling,  and  in  the  city  of  Lawrence 
7.70. 

Now,  does  the  system  of  transportation  in  the  city  of  Ber- 
lin have  any  bearing  on  this  question?  I  think  it  does. 
The  system  in  the  city  of  Berlin  is  simply  this :  they  go  a 
certain  distance  for  a  single  fare,  and  the  maximum  distance 
in  the  city  of  Berlin  —  and  it  is  farther  iU  the  city  of 
Berlin  than  any  other  German  city  whose  statistics  I  have 
investigated  —  is  a  mile  and  a  half.  You  can  go  a  mile  and 
a  half  for  2^  cents,  but  when  you  cross  that  mile  and  a  half 
—  it  makes  no  difference  whether  you  go  100  yards  this  side 
or  100  yards  the  other  side — you  are  obliged  to  pay  two 
fares  if  you  go  beyond  that  limit,  and  a  single  fare  is  10 
pfennigs,  which  is  2i  cents.  You  can  ride  one  and  a  half 
miles  in  Berlin  cheaper  than  you  can  in  Boston,  but  if  you 
want  to  ride  two  miles  it  is  just  the  same  as  if  you  were  to 
ride  three,  three  and  a  half,  or  four  miles.  The  maximum 
distance  at  which  these  stations  are  apart  is  one  and  a  half 
miles,  and  they  vary  from  that  to  eighty-four  one-hundredths 
of  a  mile. 

Now,  you  will  see  that  the  payment  of  2i  cents  twice  a 
day,  going  back  and  forth  every  day,  for  a  man  who  receives 
only  from  25  to  75  cents  a  day  for  his  labor,  is  a  much  larger 
proportion  of  his  daily  earnings  than  the  sum  that  is  paid  in 
the  city  of  Boston,  and  it  is  impossible  for  these  laboring 
people  to  pay,  with  the  income  that  they  receive,  even  the 


9 

fare  of  2i  cents  for  the  purpose  of  getting  out  of  this  par- 
ticular district,  and  the  same  thing  has  operated  in  Berlin  as 
would  be  absolutely  sure  to  follow  here  if  the  fare  were  so 
high  that  the  people  could  not  go  into  the  suburbs  and  avail 
themselves  of  the  opportunities  to  get  cheap  houses  and 
cheap  lands,  where  they  can  build  better,  healthier  homes. 

Now,  the  system  of  Berlin  is  two  cents  and  a  half  for 
every  mile  and  a  half.  That  system,  if  applied  here  (our 
road  could  be  operated  at  the  cost  of  the  roads  in  Berlin), 
would  have  brought  to  the  West  End  road  a  net  income  of 
nearly  three  millions  of  dollars  more  than  it  received. 
There  are  16,000  acres  of  land  in  Berlin,  and  less  than  8,000 
acres  are  occupied.  These  28,000  buildings,  holding  1,315,- 
000  people,  occupy  less  than  one  half  of  the  building  land 
in  the  city  of  Berlin.  Now,  there  is  an  elevated  railroad  in 
the  city  of  Berlin,  built  at  a  cost  of  nearly  $20,000,000.  It 
is  almost  20  miles  long,  and  the  best  elevated  railroad  that 
there  is  in  the  wide  world,  and  it  carried  last  year  15,000,000 
people  and  earned  less  than  4  per  cent.,  in  the  aggregate,  of 
its  cost.  It  was  started  by  private  capitalists,  and  so  expen- 
sive was  it  that  it  was  abandoned  and  was  finished  by  the 
government,  and  is  owned  by  the  government,  and  the  same 
system  of  fares  holds  there,  excepting  that  there  is  no  fare 
less  than  five  cents,  and  it  goes  from  that  to  ten  cents.  In 
that  great  city  of  four  times  the  population  of  the  city  of 
Boston  there  were  only  15,000,000  people  carried  in  1890  on 
that  elevated  railroad,  and  the  West  End  Street  Railway 
Company  carried  on  its  surface  system  last  year  114,000,000. 
Now,  what  would  the  West  End  Railroad  Company,  or  what 
would  these  communities  do,  with  an  elevated  railroad  like 
that  in  the  the  city  of  Berlin?  Why,  they  would  simply 
connect  it  with  their  outlying  lines,  and  give  the  people  the 
opportunity  of  going  back  and  forth  over  these  surface  lines 
and  over  the  elevated  lines,  and  doing  it  for  one  fare  if  pos- 
sible. See  what  the  effect  would  be  upon  the  social  life  of 
these  communities! 

What  is  the  system  of  transportation  in  the  city  of  Bos- 
ton ?     Do  we  discriminate  against  the  suburbs  ?     Not  at  all. 


10 

Isn't  it  a  system  that  is  calculated  to  send  people  to  the 
suburbs  because  we  make  no  greater  charge  for  a  person 
coming  from  Somerville  than  if  he  got  into  the  cars  at 
Causeway  Street  and  rode  to  State  Street  ?  I  agree  that  there 
seems  to  be  some  measure  of  injustice  in  that.  I  agree  that, 
perhaps,  we  ought  not  to  charge  quite  so  much  for  a  half-mile 
as  for  five  miles,  but  I  say  that  I  believe  that  it  is  entirely 
due  to  this  system  that  this  condition  of  social  life  exists  to 
which  I  have  called  attention.  I  believe  that  if  you  draw  a 
line,  a  mile  line,  or  a  two-mile  line,  or  a  two-and-a-half-mile 
line,  and  say,  "  Thus  far  shalt  thou  go,  and  no  farther,  for 
a  single  fare,"  then  you  compel  large  numbers  of  people  to 
dwell  within  that  distance  ;  and  there  is  some  compensation 
—  I  say  there  is  a  large  compensation  —  to  the  people  that 
live  within  the  narrow  circle  in  the  fact  that  some  people 
will  go  farther  within  that  inner  circle,  which  is  less  crowded 
in  consequence  of  it.  They  are  willing  to  spend  longer 
time  in  the  cars,  they  are  willing  to  be  subjected  to  the  dis- 
comfort of  a  longer  ride  and  a  crowded  car,  for  the  purpose 
of  living  in  these  cheaper  and  healthier  places,  and,  in  that 
way,  it  reacts  upon  the  social  life  of  the  people  within  the 
narrow  circle,  and  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  that 
is  some  compensation. 

Coming  down  now  to  the  substantial  transportation 
between  the  city  of  Somerville  and  the  city  of  Boston,  I 
want  to  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  from  Central  Street 
in  this  city  of  Somerville,  I  believe  from  this  corner  here, 
which  is  somewhat  near  the  centre  of  Somerville,  to  Bolyston 
Street  in  Boston,  it  is  about  4i  miles.  In  fact,  the  cars  run 
something  farther  than  this  point  —  it  would  be  fair  to  say 
that  the  cars  for  the  city  of  Somerville,  about  five  miles 
each  way,  taking  the  distance  to  Boylston  Street  or  Temple 
Place  from  near  the  centre  of  Somerville.  We  run  the  cars 
also  beyond  Boylston  Street,  so  that  Somerville  people  have 
the  opportunity  to  go  beyond  in  this  direction  and  further 
than  Bo^-lston  Street  in  the  other.  Now,  what  does  it  cost 
to  run  a  car  ?  There  are  a  great  many  people  who  have 
an  idea  that  cars  can  be  run  and  give  everybody  a  seat. 


11 

Well,  now,  it  cost  last  year,  the  fiscal  year  ending  October, 
1890,  including  our  taxes,  a  little  more  than  26  cents  a  mile 
to  run  a  car.  This  year,  owing  to  the  increase  in  the  cost 
of  grain,  the  cost  is  nearly  28  cents.  That  is  made  up  of 
about  12  cents  a  mile,  while  it  cost  us  to  feed  the  horses  and 
pay  for  their  depreciation,  their  harnesses,  and  one  thing  and 
another  that  comes  into  the  cost  of  the  motive  power.  It 
costs  between  8  and  9  cents  for  conductors  and  drivers. 
That  is  absolute  money  paid  out,  and  that  is  about  20  cents 
a  mile,  and  it  costs  for  repairs  of  the  cars,  repairs  of  our 
tracks  and  stables,  and  all  general  expenses  and  our  taxes, 
from  6  to  8  cents.  That  gives  nothing  at  all  as  a  dividend 
for  the  capital  invested.  Now,  in  order  to  earn  6  per  cent, 
upon  the  money  that  is  invested  to  do  this  business,  it  costs 
about  6  cents  a  mile  on  the  cost,  making  about  34  cents  a 
mile  as  the  cost.  I  presume  that  nobody  here  will  consider 
that  6  per  cent,  or  even  7  or  8  or  10  per  cent,  was  an  extrav- 
agant sum  to  be  allowed  to  the  capital  furnishing  all  this 
transportation,  and  taking  care  of  it,  and  everything  of  that 
kind.  Well,  now,  what  does  that  mean  ?  That  means  that 
the  cost  of  running  a  car  to  and  from  the  city  of  Boston, 
which  is  10  miles,  is  $3.40.  That  further  means  that  if 
each  one  of  these  passengers  pays  5  cents,  you  must  get  68 
passengers  on  the  round  trip  in  order  to  pay  your  expenses 
and  to  pay  your  6  per  cent.,  and  that  means  84  passengers  in 
the  car  each  way,  and  that  means  not  only  34  passengers  in 
each  car  each  way,  but  it  means  that  for  every  trip  that  is 
run  too ;  and  if  you  do  not  get  the  34  passengers  each  way 
for  every  trip  that  is  run,  you  must  make  it  up  by  getting 
more  passengers  into  some  of  the  cars,  and  that,  I  assume, 
is  what  is  done.  (Laughter.)  But,  unfortunately  for  us, 
we  did  not  get  our  34  cents  from  the  city  of  SomerviUe, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  city  of  Charlestown  and  its 
shorter  haul  was  on  this  line,  and  notwithstanding  that  the 
people  that  get  into  the  cars  at  the  northern  depots,  going 
up  town,  are  credited  to  the  city  of  SomerviUe  —  notwith- 
standing all  that,  for  last  year  the  earning  of  the  Charles- 
town  line,  of  this  whole  division,  the  shorter  haul  and  all 


12 

was  about  31  cents.  That  was  all  there  was  of  it,  and  many 
of  these  Soraerville  lines  do  not  pay.  1  say  this  in  no  offen- 
sive sense  at  all,  but  simply  that  you  may  appreciate  the  real 
facts  of  the  situation,  and  then  I  am  going  to  tell  you  what 
the  remedy  is.  The  first  thing  is  that  you  should  appreciate 
and  uudei-stand  the  real  facts  of  the  situation,  and  these 
figures  that  I  have  here  are  not  any  figures  that  were  made 
up  for  presentation  to  this  Association ;  they  are  the 
reports  that  are  made  by  our  treasurer  and  auditor,  and 
when  they  were  made  they  had  not  the  slightest  knowledge, 
and  neither  had  I,  that  they  ever  would  be  used  for  any  such 
purpose  ;  they  are  simply  our  business  statistics  for  the  year. 

There  is  one  line  that  we  run  in  the  city  of  Somerville 
called  "  the  Highland-avenue  transfer  line."  We  ran  22,447 
miles  last  year,  and  we  received  the  enormous  sum  of  #827.01 
—  that  one  cent  is  very  important  —  or  an  average  of  three 
and  seven-tenths  cents  per  mUe  for  that  Highland-avenue 
transfer  line.  It  cost  us  to  run  those  22,447  miles  $6,000, 
and  there  was  loss  on  that  Highland-avenue  transfer  line  of 
$5,000.  There  are  people  who  believe  that  we  can  carry 
people  and  give  them  a  seat  all  the  way  from  Somerville  to 
Boston,  and  for  a  single  fare  of  five  cents.  If  we  carried  an 
absolute  car  full  we  should  earn,  with  twenty-two  seats,  $1.10, 
and  the  absolute  cost  would  be  $1.40,  and  nobody  can  do  it 
cheaper  than  that. 

Well,  now,  what  is  the  remedy  ?  Is  there  any  remedy  for 
it?  There  is  but  one  practical  remedj',  for  I  believe  that  the 
city  of  Somerville,  the  people  who  ride,  would  be  unwilling 
to  consent  to  an  increase  in  the  fares,  and  I  am  certain  that 
we  cannot  buy  our  material  at  less,  and  I  do  not  believe  that 
the  men  that  we  employ  will  consent  to  any  reduction  in 
their  wages;  therefore,  those  two  alternatives  are  imprac- 
ticable, and  there  is  but  one  other  that  I  know  of,  and  that 
is  by  the  introduction  of  a  cheaper  system  of  motive  power. 
There  is  a  system  of  motive  power  which  two  years  ago  was 
in  the  experimental  stage,  and  which  the  West  End  Railway 
Company  has  been  introducing  ever  since,  and  I  am  happy 
to  say  that  the  expectations  indulged  in  at  that  time  have 


13 

been  more  than  realized ;  but  when  I  look  back  upon  it,  and 
see  what  we  have  done  or  what  we  undertook  to  do  two 
years  ago,  it  looks  almost  like  recklessness.  I  do  not  mean 
to  be  understood  that  up  to  this  time  we  have  realized  any 
very  great  degree  of  saving,  for  the  thing  is  in  its  early, 
incipient  stage,  but  we  are  building  power-houses  which  shall 
provide  power  at  the  cheapest  possible  cost.  Great  improve- 
\ments  are  being  made  in  the  machinery,  and  along  with  this 
we  have  been  able  to  use  a  much  larger  car.  We  are  able 
with  this  power  to  run  a  car  which  shall  seat  thirty-six  pas- 
sengers at  less  than  the  cost  of  seating  twenty-two,  and  that 
is  what  you  are  interested  in  having  done.  If  we  could  run 
a  car  seating  thirty-six  passengers  at  the  same  cost  as  that  of 
a  car  that  seats  twenty-two  passengers,  and  we  could  fill  it 
every  time,  we  could  afford  to  give  everybody  in  Somerville 
who  rides  back  and  forth  a  seat,  and  have  some  money  our- 
selves. Now,  that  is  the  system  that  the  city  of  Somerville 
is  interested  in  having  adopted,  and  having  adopted  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment;  but  this  thing  cannot  be  done 
without  money.  Now,  the  money  that  goes  into  this  trans- 
portation business,  in  my  judgment,  should  be  made  as  secure 
as  possible  and  it  ought  to  be  made  a  favorite  investment, 
for  I  believe  that  there  is  no  money  spent  in  the  community, 
and  none  given  away  for  any  charitable  purpose  whatsoever, 
that  does  any  more  good  than  that  invested  in  this  transpor- 
tation business,  and  if  the  city  of  Somerville  realizes  its  own 
interests  in  this  respect,  it  will  stand  by  the  West  End  Rail- 
way Company  in  what  it  is  undertaking  to  do,  and  cooperate 
with  it  in  its  efforts.     (Applause.) 

We  have  been  called  before  the  Legislature  this  year  with 
such  attacks  upon  our  property,  upon  our  rights,  as  to  be 
absolutely  destructive  of  any  further  investments  in  this 
business  if  the  attacks  should  be  successful;  no  man  can  do 
it,  and  no  set  of  men.  can.  I  cannot  work  out  this  problem 
for  this  or  any  other  community  unless  it  be  understood 
implicitly  that  the  money  that  is  invested  in  this  business 
shall  be  secured.  So  far  as  the  taxation  question  is  con- 
cerned, although  I  have  differed  with  your  city  of  Somer- 


14 

ville,  or  some  of  the  aldermen  of  the  city  of  Somerville,  in 
this  respect,  I  know  that  it  was  because  the  city  of  Somer- 
ville did  not  understand  this  question.  It  would  be  decid- 
edly better  for  Somerville  to  relieve  the  railroad  of  every 
cent  of  tax,  if  thereby  it  could  promote  and  encourage  and 
develop  this  system  of  tran'^portation,  which  is  so  important 
to  this  community. 

Now,  the  city  of  Somerville  is  a  city  of  very  rapid  growth. 
I  congratulate  you  and  every  citizen  of  Somerville  on  your 
magnificent  showing  for  the  last  twenty  years,  and  especially 
for  the  last  five  years.  The  growth  is  something  perfectly 
astonishing.  It  is  paralleled  only  by  the  suburbs  surround- 
ing Boston  —  West  Roxbury  and  Brighton  and  Everett  — 
and  it  compares  with  the  cities  of  the  West  and  South.  But 
along  with  this  growth,  and  as  a  very  important,  if  not  the 
most  important,  factor  in  the  growth  and  prosperity  or  com- 
fort of  the  people  that  are  to  occupy  these  homes  in  the 
future,  is  the  question  of  how  they  shall  get  back  and  forth 
to  and  from  their  business.  We  live  in  a  most  surprising 
age.  When  I  see  the  very  great  difference  between  the 
wages  paid  abroad  and  the  wages  paid  at  home,  I  wonder  if 
this  condition  of  things  can  continue.  I  know  that  the  fare 
between  the  city  of  Somerville  and  the  city  of  Boston  to 
most  of  you  gentlemen  here  is  of  very  small  consequence. 
I  know  that  very  many  of  you  would  be  perfectly  willing  to 
pay  ten  cents  for  a  seat  in  and  out  of  Boston,  if  thereby  you 
could  get  it  and  if  it  were  possible  to  arrange  a  system  of 
transportation  which  should  give  the  people  who  are  willing 
to  pay  this  ten  cents  back  and  forth  a  class  of  cars  by  which 
it  could  be  done.  I  know  that  would  be  very  satisfactory  to 
great  numbers  of  your  people.  But  that  is  impossible :  I 
apprehend  that  the  day  may  come  when  the  difference 
between  five  cents  and  ten  cents  will  be  a  very  great  factor 
in  determining  the  question  where  people  shall  live. 

Now,  then,  how  can  we  improve  this  system  ?  How  can  we 
shorten  the  time  without  increasing  the  cost  ?  That  is  the 
next  problem  with  which  we  and  this  community  have  to 
deal.     I  have,  personally,  no  desire  for  anything  that  I  can 


1"6 

make  out  of  the  elevated  road  or  the  underground  road,  to 
undertake  it.  The  pecuniary  compensations  have  not  the 
slightest  temptations  for  me,  because  it  is  such  a  tremendous 
question,  so  full  of  possibilities,  it  is  true,  but  so  full  of 
dangere  to  any  concern  that  undertakes  it,  I  am  free  to  say 
to  you  that  I  shrink  from  the  task.  I  know  there  are  plenty 
of  men  who  will  come  into  your  hall  to-day,  or  will  go  to 
the  legislative  hall,  who  will  tell  you  that  if  you  will  give 
them  a  charter  they  will  build  the  elevated  or  underground 
railroad  for  you,  but  it  is  perfect  nonsense  to  listen  to  any 
such  talk  as  that.  The  granting  of  any  charter  to  anybody 
at  this  time  would  simply  be  an  embarrassment  of  the  whole 
question,  for  this  is  a  question  that  will  task  the  utmost  ca- 
pacity, in  my  judgment,  of  this  community  and  Cambridge 
and  Boston  and  all  the  communities  that  desire  to  see  this 
thing  done.  I  desire  to  see  it  done,  because,  seeing  how  the 
people  live  abroad,  and  seeing  how  important  it  is  that  the 
people  shall  continue  to  go  to  the  suburbs,  in  order  that  they 
may  live  in  this  healthy  way,  I  say  that  there  is  no  question 
of  equal  importance  which  confronts  these  communities.  I 
shall  do  what  I  can  to  point  out  the  proper  way,  but  if  any 
other  man  or  set  of  men  are  willing  to  undertake  the  solu- 
tion of  that  problem,  and  will  build  that  underground  or 
elevated  road,  and  will  give  us  at  each  end  of  that  line  a  con- 
nection which  will  permit  us  to  carry  you  to  your  homes  and 
the  people  on  the  other  side  of  the  city  of  Boston  to  their 
homes,  I  shall  be  very  glad  of  it.  I  believe  that  it  will 
require  some  aid,  some  relief  from  taxation,  instead  of  added 
taxation,  in  order  that  the  thing  may  be  done,  and  I  hope 
this  Association  will  give  to  that  question,  when  it  comes  up, 
careful  consideration. 

I  have  not  the  slightest  idea  what  will  be  proposed,  but  I 
tell  you  that  if  the  thing  is  done  at  all,  it  will  have  to  be 
done  in  a  way  which  the  people  little  expect  at  this  time,  for, 
unless  1  am  mistaken,  there  is  a  very  general  belief  that  there 
is  money  in  the  enterprise.  Well,  I  do  not  believe  that  there 
is;  but  still  I  think  —  I  know  —  it  ought  to  be  done.  I 
know  that  there  ought  to  be  found  some  way  by  which,  say 


IB 

from  Thompson  Square  to  Roxbury  Postoffice,  there  shall 
be,  before  many  years,  some  new  and  improved  means  of 
transit,  accommodating  the  dwellers  within  that  section,  and 
through  the  surface  roads  reaching  the  people  beyond  the 
termini. 

This  transportation  question  is  a  question  that  merits  the 
careful  consideration  of  your  people.  You  have  reached  the 
limit  of  accommodation  by  horsecars.  Neither  the  West 
End  Railway  Company,  nor  any  other  corporation,  nor  any 
other  parties,  can  do  anything  better  by  you  than  we  can 
do  to-day.  It  is  exceedingly  fortunate  for  this  community 
that  it  has  such  excellent  steam  railroad  facilities,  and  I  do 
not  begrudge  it  in  the  least.  I  am  heartily  glad  of  it,  and  I 
hope  that  the  West  End  Street  Railway  Company  may  have 
the  cordial  cooperation  and  support  of  your  Association  and 
of  this  community  in  anything  they  may  undertake  to  do 
which  is  reasonable  toward  the  working  out  of  this  problem. 
Give  us  a  chance  to  get  the  money,  consent  that  the  money 
that  is  invested  in  this  be  made  secure,  encourage  people  to 
invest  their  money,  come  to  understand  the  question,  and 
then  3'^ou  will  do  something  toward  the  working  out  of  this 
problem. 

President  Whitney's  address  was  loudly  applauded  at  the 
close,  after  which  Mr.  Lincoln  moved  that  a  vote  of  thanks 
be  tendered  to  Mr.  Whitney  for  his  interesting  talk,  and  the 
motion  unanimously  prevailed.  Afterward  a  lunch  was 
served.     The  whole  affair  was  a  grand  success. 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  ROXBURY  CLUB, 

MAY    9,    1891. 


President  Henry  M.  Whitney,  of  the  West  End  Street 
Railway  Company,  as  the  guest  of  the  Roxbury  Club,  Sat- 
urday night,  addressed  a  critical,  intelligent,  and,  if  one  may 
judge  from  their  ultimate  action,  a  highly  appreciative  and 
edified  audience  of  citizens  of  Roxbury.  Mr.  Whitney  was 
introduced  by  the  President  of  the  Roxbury  Club,  and  spoke 
as  follows :  — 

Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen  op  Roxhuuy:  — 

Something  less  than  a  year  ago,  forewarned  by  certain  meas- 
ures introduced  into  the  city  g^^vertlm^•nt^  of  Boston,  that  an 
attempt  was  to  be  made  dui-in^  the-  tfidfnli^ig  winter  to  levy 
increased  taxes  upon  thehtiefct  rail  r/aycorpo -rations  of  the 
State,  I  was  led  to  inforto  rhy^elf  partioulad}':  i<*nd  accurately 
as  to  the  condition  of  transjutftatjjon.  IjpthMn  this  country 
and  in  foreign  countries.       •--'''  \, '     •,'•'•;• 

I  have  spared  no  pains  to  learn  what  is  the  exact  relation 
of  this  transportation  question  to  the  social  life  of  the  com- 
munity. I  was  not  aware,  until  I  came  to  investigate  it, 
how  closely  allied  were  the  interests  of  transportation  and 
the  true  interests  of  every  community. 

I  found  a  condition  of  social  life  in  the  large  cities  of 
Europe  which  to  us  is  absolutely  appalling,  and  the  reason 
for  the  existence  of  this  condition  of  things  is  because  it  is 
impossible  for  the  people  to  go  into  the  suburbs,  where  land 
is  cheap  and  houses  are  cheap,  and  avail  themselves  of 
advantages  in  this  respect  that  the  people  in  the  State  of 
Massachusetts  possess. 

The  wages  throughout  Germany  average  for  an  able-bodied 
man  from  40  to  70  cents  a  day  ;  and  the  system  of  transpor- 
tation throughout  the  whole  of  Germany  is  a  single  fare  for 
perhaps  a  mile  and  a  half,  which  is  the  extreme  limit,  2i 
cents  fare.     You  then  go  perhaps  a  mile  or  a  mile  and  a  half 


18 

further,  and  it  is  2i  cents  more  ;  you  go  another  mile  and  a 
half,  and  it  is  2^  cents  more ;  so  that,  under  the  German  sys- 
tem, if  one  were  to  start  from  the  northern  depots  and  go  to 
our  station  in  Dorchester,  he  would  pay  no  less  than  7i 
cents. 

Now,  of  course,  no  laboring  man  in  Europe  could  afford 
to  pay  15  cents  a  day  for  his  fare  to  and  from  his  work, 
receiving  only  about  60  cents  for  his  wages. 

The  average  pay  to  a  conductor  and  a  driver  of  a  horse- 
car  in  the  city  of  Berlin  and  in  Frankfort  and  all  German 
cities  is  60  cents  a  day.  We  pay  from  $2  to  $2.25.  Well, 
now,  the  road  in  Berlin  has  earned  within  the  last  six  or 
eight  years  an  average  net  profit  of  46  per  cent,  a  year  ;  and 
the  West  End  Street  Railway  Company  earned  on  its  enor- 
mous traffic  last  year  a  net  profit  of  but  6.2  per  cent.  That 
was  all  that  it  earned,  and  the  road  gave  to  the  people  every- 
thing but  that.  •..•T'hat'W'q-s^tL ; that  the  West  End  Street  Rail- 
way Company  eai*ned  dn  its  fenot-toous  traffic,  carrying  in  this 
city  of  400,0|;)0  i^r  5][K)i,000'.,inh9jtiiiaiits,  as  many  as  the  city 
of  Berlin,  a  ttfty  of  almost  l,t00;00(>  inhabitants.  In  the  city 
of  Berlin  there' wp?'^  (;ari'je(3i  la  ihe  streetcars  only  as  many 
people  as  were'carti^d  ih  the  city  of  Boston. 

What  is  the  reason  of  it,  and  why  is  it  that  our  cars  are 
crowded  ?  It  is  simply  this :  the  population  has  year  by  year 
stretched  further  and  further  into  the  suburbs.  There  are 
more  people  that  live  in  Roxbury  now  than  there  were  ten 
years  ago ;  there  were  more  ten  years  ago  than  there  were 
twenty  years  ago,  and  I  suppose  that  in  the  next  ten  years 
there  will  be  a  like  increase  in  population. 

It  costs  a  certain  sum  to  run  a  car  a  mile.  It  has  cost  on 
the  horsecar  system  of  our  road,  during  the  months  of  Feb- 
ruar}'-  and  March,  28  cents  a  mile.  Now,  you  cannot  run  a 
horsecar  five  miles  for  the  same  expense  that  you  can  run  a 
car  a  mile,  and  if  your  increase  in  population  is  at  the  end  of 
the  line,  of  course  it  costs  more  year  by  year  to  carry  it,  and 
of  course,  in  order  to  do  it  at  all,  the  cars  must  be  more 
and  more  crowded. 

Well,  now,  what  is  the  relief  from  such  a  condition  of 


19 

things,  for  that  is  the  interesting  question  ?  Why,  the  relief 
from  that  condition  of  things  can  only  come  in  one  of  three 
ways.  It  may  come  in  a  reduction  of  expenses,  if  that  be 
possible.  But  everybody  who  knows  anything  about  the 
condition  of  the  labor  market  and  the  cost  of  grain  and  the 
cost  of  all  those  things  that  enter  into  the  sum  total  of 
expenses  knows  that  that  alternative  is  not  worthy  of  any 
consideration. 

The  second  alternative  is  that  the  fares  should  be  raised  ; 
and  does  anybody  believe  that  that  can  be  done?  Why, 
that  would  neutralize  one  of  the  advantages  of  going  into 
the  suburbs.  There  is  one  other  way,  and  one  only,  by 
which  it  can  be  done,  and  that  is  by  the  introduction  of  a 
cheaper  system  of  motive  power,  and  by  the  use  of  larger 
cars,  and  you  are  all  witnesses  to  the  fact  that  that  is  the 
system  that  the  West  End  Street  Railway  is  trying  to  intro- 
duce. It  has  spent  over  a  million  upon  its  power  plant  and 
electric  work  up  to  this  time,  and  needs  to  spend  millions 
more. 

Now,  I  say  the  great  difference  in  the  social  life  of  the 
poor  people  here  and  in  Berlin,  in  my  judgment,  consists  in 
the  difference  in  the  transportation  system.  If  you  draw  a 
line  at  Dover  Street,  and  say,  "  Thus  far  shalt  thou  go,  and 
no  farther,  for  a  single  fare,"  of  course  you  invite  the  people 
to  live  within  that  limit.  If  you  draw  another  line  at  the 
.Roxbury  postoffice,  and  say,  "  Thus  far  shalt  thou  go  for  two 
fares,  and  no  farther,"  then  you  compel  a  certain  number  of 
people  more  to  live  within  that  limit,  and  that  compels  the 
crowding  of  the  people  into  these  particular  limits. 

In  order  to  encourage  people  to  go  into  the  suburbs  and 
live  there  and  prevent  the  crowding  of  the  central  districts, 
they  must  be  allowed  to  go  for  the  same  fare.  Until "  I  had 
investigated  the  subject  recently  I  was  not  aware  how  impor- 
tant a  consideration  that  is,  and  I  believe  there  is  nothing 
that  equals  it  in  importance  before  this  community  to-day. 

How  can  you  preserve  this  condition  of  things  ?  Day  by 
day  the  area  around  the  city  of  Boston  is  becoming  more 
and  more  crowded.     We  have  absolutely  reached  the  limit 


20 

at  which  we  can  carry  people  by  horsecars.  The  expense 
per  passenger  last  year  was  1.3  cents  per  mile.  That  is  the 
cost  of  carrying  passengers,  and  is  as  cheap  as  the  West  End 
Street  Railway  Company  or  anybody  else  can  do  it. 

Now,  if  you  carry  a  passenger  five  miles,  or,  say,  from  the 
northern  depots  to  Dorchest'^r,  which  is  about  five  miles  and 
a  half,  there  is  absolutely  no  profit  in  carrying  that  passen- 
ger by  horsecars.  If  we  have  to  run  a  line  of  horsecars 
from  the  northern  depots  to  that  point  exclusively  for  Dor- 
chester passengers,  the  more  we  run  the  poorer  we  are. 
Therefore,  the  only  alternative  is  a  recourse  to  some  cheaper 
system  of  transportation. 

What  do  we  find  to  be  the  effect  of  the  electric  system  ? 
Why,  we  find  this :  we  find  that,  in  the  operation  of  the 
electric  cars,  the  cars  that  run  to  Dorchester  absolutel^^  earn 
more  per  mile  than  the  cars  that  run  to  the  Norfolk  House. 
The  South  Boston  line  has  always  been  considered  the 
banner  line  of  the  West  End  Railway  Company,  but  it  is 
not  so  any  longer.  The  banner  lines  of  the  West  End 
Railway  Company  are  the  lines  that  run  out  in  this  district, 
and  the  West  End  Railway  Company,  by  its  electric  car 
system,  moves  its  cars  over  this  long  distance  and  makes 
those  cars  pay  better  than  the  cars  of  the  South  Boston  line 
or  the  Back  Bay  line,  or  any  line  we  have,  and  that  is  the 
encouraging  thing. 

I  am  glad  to  tell  you,  gentlemen,  that  the  result  of  the 
introduction  of  the  electric  system  is  encouraging,  and  I 
know  that  every  man  who  has  the  good  of  this  community 
at  heart  will  rejoice  in  knowing  that  fact. 

But  now  we  are  met  with  an  entirely  new  condition  of 
things.  We  are  met  with  a  condition  of  things  that  is  abso- 
lutely full  of  danger  to  this  whole  community.  I  have  in 
my  hand  a  list  of  matters,  twenty-three  in  number,  brought 
before  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  this  year,  relating  to 
street  railways.  All  sorts  of  attacks  upon  all  sorts  of  mat- 
ters, threatening  the  integrity  and  threatening  the  investment 
of  this  whole  enterprise,  and  brought  by  men  of  all  classes  — 
■honest  men,  I  have  no  doubt,  but  many  of  them  men  full  of 


21 

prejudice,  men  who  are  unwilling  to  look  at  the  exact  facts 
of  the  case,  but  who  have  a  theory  that  the  street  railway 
companies  can  be  taxed  almost  indefinitely  and  still  have  no 
injury  done  to  the  service. 

Now,  I  believe  that  there  is  no  subject  upon  which  this 
community  should  be  so  truly  jealous  as  any  interference 
with  the  street  railway  system  of  transportation. 

We  were  called  to  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  this 
year  —  and  I  have  been  called  there  every  single  year  since 
I  have  been  connected  with  the  railroad  —  to  fight  for  the 
existence  of  the  road,  but  until  this  year  I  have  not  been 
met  with  any  attacks  that  I  deemed  were  specially  danger- 
ous. But  now  my  heart  is  heavy  with  fear  for  the  future  of 
this  enterprise,  and  I  say  that  unless  the  people  of  this  city 
stand  up  and  see  to  it  that  this  enterprise  is  not  wrecked,  I 
fear  it  will  be  wrecked. 

Among  others  who  have  appeared  before  the  Legislature, 
asking  for  new  legislation,  were  the  representatives  of  the 
Citizens'  Association  of  the  city  of  Boston  ;  and  their  repre- 
sentative, Mr.  Harding,  appeared  before  the  Committee  on 
Cities,  and  presented  a  bill.  I  have  in  my  hand  the  stenog- 
rapher's report  of  his  speech,  and  I  would  like  to  read  to 
you  some  extracts  from  it  in  order  that  you  may  see  whether 
or  not  what  I  say  is  true  with  reference  to  the  danger  of  such 
attacks. 

Before  the  Committee  on  Cities,  on  the  eleventh  day  of 
March,  Mr.  Harding  said :  — 

"The  bill  which  I  present  has  been  prepared  by  the 
executive  committee  of  the  Citizens'  Association,  who  have 
given  the  subject  such  care  and  attention  as  its  very  grave 
importance  requires.  We  think  we  are  justified  in  claiming, 
and  certainly  in  submitting  to  you  that  these  corporations 
and  persons  can  well  afford  to  contribute  more  largely  than 
they  now  do  to  the  expense  of  maintaining  the  city  of  Bos- 
ton ;  and  not  only  can  they  afford  to  do  it,  but  we  claim 
that  the  city  ought,  in  justice  to  itself  and  to  the  other 
business  interests  of  the  city,  to  demand  it,  and  the  Com- 
monwealth of  Massachusetts  ought  to  give  the  cities  and 


22 

towns  permission  to  do  it,  assuming  that  such  permission 
does  not  now  exist.  For  the  purpose,  therefore,  of  giving 
cities  and  towns  that  power,  if  it  does  trot  now  exist,  which 
they  may  exercise  in  a  proper  manner  and  with  such  safe- 
guards as,  in  their  discrete' -^n,  each  case  warrants  and  re- 
quires, we  have  prepared  this  bill.  It  is  more  or  less  inti- 
mately connected  with  questions  affecting  legal  rights  and 
possibly  constitutional  prohibition ;  but  I  shall  assume  for 
the  purposes  of  my  discussion  that  the  legal  questions  have 
been  effectively  and  sufficiently  disposed  of  by  the  very  able 
opinion  presented  to  the  Committee  the  other  day  by  the 
corporation  counsel  of  Boston." 

I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  at  this  time 
this  gentleman,  Mr.  Harding,  expressed  great  confidence  in 
the  opinion  and  judgment  and  care  of  the  corporation  coun- 
sel of  the  city  of  Boston.  And  then,  speaking  of  the  street 
railway  companies,  he  says  this :  — 

"They  have  been  granted  their  different  privileges  be- 
cause it  was,  in  the  opinion  of  the  communities,  proper  that 
they  should  exercise  those  privileges  for  the  public  interests ; 
but  it  goes  without  saying  that  when  the  conditions,  either 
of  the  public  or  of  the  individuals  or  of  the  corporation, 
change  it  is  perfectly  proper  that  the  conditions  under  which 
those  rights  are  exercised  should  also  be  changed,  because 
we  can  see  that  a  privilege  granted  ten,  twenty,  or  thirty 
years  ago,  when  the  communities  were  small,  when  indus- 
tries were  struggling  into  being  and  needed  protection,  and 
it  was  for  the  interests  of  the  community  that  they  should 
be  protected,  and  they  were,  therefore,  given  exclusive  rights 
in  the  streets  without  payment,  because  at  that  time  they 
could  not  afford  to  pay  for  them,  and  it  would  not  have  been 
right  to  ask  them  to  pay  for  them  "  (that  is  the  kind  of  logic 
he  uses)  "  and  if  they  had  been  required  to  pay  for  them  it 
would  have  prevented  the  very  thing  that  the  communities 
wanted ;  therefore  the  fact  that  locations  were  granted  some 
time  ago  without  consideration  and  without  payment  does 
not  in  the  slightest  degree  militate  against  the  fairness  and 
propriety  of  requiring  that  those  same  locations  should  be 


23 

paid  for  to-day  if  the  conditions  of  the  community,  if  the 
conditions  of  the  corporations,  if  the  conditions  oi  the 
persons  enjoying  those  privileges  hare  so  changed  that  their 
ability  is  greater  and  the  propriety  of  requiring  them  to 
pay  is  greater." 

What  kind  of  business  reasoning  is  that?  Ignoring  all 
questions  of  right  whatsoever,  the  proposition  is  simply  that 
when  the  corporations  could  not  afford  to  pay  for  them  they 
took  them  and  ran  them  at  a  loss,  but  now  that  they  can 
make  something  out  of  them  we  will  turn  around  and  give 
the  State  the  right  to  tax  them.  Then  this  gentleman  goes 
on :  — 

"  It  seems  to  us,  after  all  the  consideration  that  we  have 
been  able  to  give  to  the  subject,  that  it  is  fair  that  the  city 
of  Boston  should  be  allowed  to  throw  upon  the  corporations 
using  her  streets  a  somewhat  larger  share  of  the  public 
burdens  than  they  have  borne  in  the  past,  not  for  the  pur- 
pose, as  I  beg  you  to  bear  in  mind,  of  crippling  the  corpora- 
tions, but  simply  for  the  purpose  of  equalizing  the  public 
burdens." 

He  proposes  to  make  a  new  law.  Ignoring  the  principle  . 
that  all  parties  should  be  taxed  alike,  he  proposes  that  the 
street  railroad  corporations  should  bear  more  than  their 
ordinary  share  of  public  burdens,  and  then  he  goes  on  to 
explain  his  bill :  "Section  1  provides  that  no  franchise,  right, 
privilege,  or  license  in  any  street  or  public  place  in  the 
Commonwealth  shall  hereafter  be  granted  except  in  accord- 
ance with  the  terms  of  the  bill." 

Well,  now,  so  far  as  new  locations  are  concerned,  the 
condition  provided  in  the  Citizens'  Association  bill  and  that 
asked  for  by  the  city  of  Boston  were  identically  the  same, 
and  to  those  provisions  the  West  End  Company  makes  not 
the  slightest  objection.  I  beg  you,  gentlemen,  to  understand 
at  the  outset  that  the  bill  which  has  been  presented  by  the 
Committee  on  Cities  was  not  any  bill  asked  for  by  the  West 
End  Railway  Company.  The  street  railway  companies  have 
asked  nothing  of  the  Legislature.  They  have  been  called 
up  there  and  asked  to  defend  themselves,  and  it  has  been 


24 

proposed  to  tax  them  wellnigh  out  of  existence,  and  one  of 
the  provisions  of  the  bill  was  that  new  locations  should  be 
subject  to  such  terms  and  conditions  as  the  board  of  aldermen 
should  prescribe. 

Well,  now,  so  far  as  that  is  concerned,  the  West  End 
Railway  Company  has  not  t^e  slightest  objection  to  it.  If 
it  is  not  in  the  interest  of  the  community  that  these  lines 
shall  be  extended,  the  West  End  Company  will  not  object. 
We  have  not  put  any  money  into  it,  and  that  may  be  left  to 
the  people  in  the  different  localities.  I  believe  it  is  contrary 
to  a  wise  public  policy,  but  if  the  powers  that  be  have  a 
desire  that  such  a  thing  should  be  incorporated  into  the  law 
of  Massachusetts,  I  have  not  a  word  to  say,  because  we  have 
no  money  invested  in  it,  we  have  not  taken  it  under  the 
belief  that  the  good  faith  of  the  State  were  pledged  to  the 
acceptance.  That  question  would  come  up  when  new  loca- 
tions are  granted,  and  they  make  new  terms,  and  we  can  then 
take  it  or  not,  as  we  can  afford  to,  and  therefore  I  make  no 
sort  of  objection  to  that  condition. 

Section  4  of  the  bill,  as  he  says,  provides  that  "  The  city 
council  or  the  aldermen  or  the  selectmen,  as  the  case  may  be, 
shall  hear  the  petitioners  and  remonstrants."  I  will  read  the 
whole  of  it :  — 

"  We  conceive  it  to  be  the  privilege  and  the  right  of  city 
councils  or  of  selectmen  to  determine  the  broad  legislative 
question  of  whether  or  not  the  public  interests  or  conven- 
ience require  that  certain  privileges  should  be  granted  in  the 
streets  ;  whether  the  streets  should  be  used  for  certain  pur- 
poses or  not.  If  they  so  determine,  that  settles  the  question 
so  far  as  the  right  of  the  petitioner  to  have  the  privilege  is 
concerned,  provided  the  terms  can  be  agreed  upon  between 
them.  We  give,  in  other  words,  to  the  city  council  and 
selectmen  that  power  which  it  seems  to  us  they  ought  to 
have,  as  representatives  of  the  people,  to  determine  the 
broad  question  whether  or  not  these  privileges  are  needed, 
and,  if  they  are  needed,  then  the  bill  goes  on  to  say  that  the 
city  council,  in  the  case  of  cities,  shall  certify  their  determi- 
nation to  the  mayor,  and  add  such  recommendations  as  to 


25 

the  terms  and  conditions,  including  compensation,  as  they 
shall  deem  reasonable  and  proper.  But  those  recommenda- 
tions, you  will  observe,  are  not  binding ;  they  are  merely 
recommendations ;  they  go  to  his  honor  the  mayor  with 
such  force  and  effect  as  they  may  be  entitled  to.  The  bill 
then  places  upon  the  mayor  the  burden,  in  view  of  the  sug- 
gestions of  the  council  and  of  all  other  material  facts,  of 
making  a  lease  with  the  petitioner.  There,  gentlemen,  is  the 
power  given,  as  it  seems  to  us  it  should  be,  to  the  chief  exec- 
utive officer  of  this  city  to  make  this  contract  with  the 
petitioner." 

That  leaves  the  whole  matter  to  the  mayor,  and  to  that  I 
make  no  objection.  I  merely  call  your  attention  to  the  fact 
that  at  this  time  Mr.  Harding,  representing  the  Citizens' 
Association,  desired  to  leave  the  matter  to  the  city  council 
and  the  mayor,  and  was  perfectly  willing,  in  behalf  of  the 
Association,  that  any  terms  and  conditions  that  the  mayor 
might  see  fit  to  impose,  with  the  veto  power  of  the  railroad 
commissioners,  was  satisfactory  to  the  Association  which  he 
represented. 

He  says,  in  speaking  of  the  new  regulation,  "  Therefore 
as  a  matter  of  law  I  deem  it  would  be  proper,  just,  and  con- 
stitutional for  the  Legislature  to  say,  '  The  cities  and  towns 
may  tax  as  they  choose  existing  locations  without  waiting 
for  their  termination  or  without  revoking  them.'  " 

If  I  understand  Mr.  Harding's  position,  it  is  that  it  would 
have  been  indiscreet  in  the  outset  to  have  allowed  the  local  au- 
thorities to  impose  special  taxes  upon  street  railways,  because 
that  course  would  have  prevented  investment  in  this  impor- 
tant enterprise,  but  that,  after  the  investment  has  been  made 
and  cannot  be  recalled,  it  is  not  only  legal  and  constitutional, 
but  just  and  reasonable,  to  allow  the  local  authorities  to 
impose  such  burdens  as  they  see  fit,  and  in  that  monstrous 
doctrine,  which  is  nothing  less  than  confiscation,  be  has 
claimed  to  be  representing  the  Citizens"  Association  of  Bos- 
ton.    Mr.  Harding  goes  on :  — 

"  In  other  words,  gentlemen,  if  cities  and  towns,  in  grant- 
ing these  existing  licenses,  locations,  and  privileges,  have  not 


26 

reserved  to  themselves  any  right  to  terminate  in  terms  these 
locations  or  rights,  or  if  the  statute  law  of  the  Common- 
wealth has  not  provided  that  they  shall  be  terminable  upon 
conditions,  then  it  seems  to  us  that  those  gentlemen  exercis- 
ing these  privileges  have  what  is,  in  effect,  a  certain  vested 
right ;  although  I  submit,  as  a  matter  of  law  —  I  think  there 
is  no  question  about  the  propriety  of  it  —  I  submit  as  a  mat- 
ter of  law  that  the  Legislature  would  have  authority  to 
engraft  upon  existing  locations,  as  the  implied  condition 
which  was  annexed  to  them  at  the  time  they  were  granted? 
that  they  should  be  subject  at  all  times  to  such  reasonable 
regulations  as  might  be  imposed  in  the  interests  of  the  pub- 
lic. Therefore  as  matter  of  law  I  deem  that  it  would  be 
proper,  just,  and  constitutional  for  the  Legislature  to  say: 
'  The  cities  and  towns  may  tax  as  they  choose  existing  loca- 
tions without  awaiting  for  their  termination  or  without 
revoking  them.'  " 

That  is,  if  any  corporation  in  this  State,  running  a  street 
railway,  has  a  location  which  is  by  its  terms  irrevocable,  he 
wants  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  to  pass  such  laws  as 
will  make  it  legal  and  just  and  constitutional,  in  his  -saew,  to 
step  in  and  say  that,  notwithstanding  all  that,  we  will  take 
these  rights  away  from  you,  and  then  we  will  give  them  to 
you  for  a  limited  term,  and  that  is  a  great  deal  better  for  you. 

Then  he  goes  on,  speaking  for  the  executive  committee  of 
this  Citizens'  Association  :  — 

*•'  We  have  given  this  subject  such  consideration  as  we 
could,  and  that  is  the  opinion  which  has  been  arrived  at  by 
our  executive  committee.  If  it  seems  to  be  not  sufficiently 
broad,  we  can  simply  submit  the  matter  to  the  Committee, 
and  we  are  entirely  content  to  adopt  any  amendment  or 
change  which  the  wisdom  of  the  Committee  may  dictate." 

Section  5  of  his  bill  referred  to  existing  locations,  and  Sen- 
ator West  asked  him,  "  But  according  to  your  bill  you 
exempt  corporations  now  in  existence.  That  is,  you  do  not 
exact  any  rental  from  any  corporation  now  existing,  as  I 
understand  it." 

"  Unless,"  Mr.  Harding  says  in  reply,  "  the  boards  of  alder- 


27 

men  see  fit  to  avail  themselves  of  their  right  to  terminate  a 
location,  in  which  case  they  can  make  a  new  lease  on  a  new 
basis." 

Mr.  Harding,  now  representing  the  Citizens'  Association^ 
finds  verj-  great  objection  to  the  bill  reported  by  the  Commit- 
tee on  Cities,  and  wants  it  referred  to  the  rapid  transit  com- 
mission. Mr.  Harding  said  at  this  time,  March  11,  "  If  the 
bill  does  not  strike  the  Committee  as  fair  in  that  respect,  then 
it  is  subject  to  amendment.  We  should  be  happy  to  have 
the  Committee  amend  it  in  any  way  they  choose."" 

Referring  again  to  the  bill  that  he  proposes,  he  says,  "  I 
want  to  say  that  we  do  not  submit  this  bill  as  an  ultimatum 
— take  it  or  leave  it;  we  only  present  it  as  the  result  of  our 
deliberations  and  conclusions.  Any  changes  or  amendments 
that  you  think  proper  to  make  we  shall  be  very  happy  to 
accept."  Then  the  question  was  asked  by  Mr.  Kittredge, 
whether  or  not  this  might  not  embarrass  the  corporation, 
whether  the  proposition  of  the  board  of  aldermen  to  take 
away  a  location  on  Tremont  Street  or  on  Washington  Street 
might  not  embarrass  this  corporation  or  incommode  the 
people. 

Mr.  Harding  says:  "  If  that  contingency  should  occur,  the 
people  who  suffer  from  it,  the  people  who  do  not  receive  so 
good  accommodations  as  they  did  before,  are  the  very  people 
who  are  imposing  the  exactions  which  prevent  their  getting 
suitable  accommodations. 

"Now,  then,  if  the  people  of  Boston  find  that  they  are 
getting  poorer  accommodations,  if  they  are  satisfied  that  the 
West  End  road  is  doing  all  it  can  in  good  faith,  what  will 
be  the  result?  Why,  the  next  board  of  aldermen,  the  next 
city  council,  will  be  elected  upon  the  very  issue  of  repealing 
that  contract  and  receding  from  the  position  which  the  city 
has  taken.  And  it  can  do  that  whenever  it  chooses.  In 
other  words,  whenever  the  public  demand  is  so  strong  in 
favor  of  the  corporation,  that  contract  will  be  be  wiped  out 
of  existence  just  as  soon  as  the  city  council  can  meet;  so 
that  the  trouble  will  redress  itself." 

Why,  that  condition  of  things  would  compel  the  corpora- 


28 

tion  to  be  in  politics  every  day  of  the  year.  He  says, 
of  course,  that  would  be  the  result.  He  proposes  to  make 
the  city  elections  turn  on  this  very  thing ;  this  man  who  was 
so  horrified  by  the  suggestion  of  corruption  of  the  city 
council  or  any  other  body. 

He  says  here  the  elections  would  turn  upon  the  subject, 
and  you  must  wait  until  all  these  things  occur,  until  you 
are  deprived  of  the  accommodations,  until  the  company  is 
embarrassed  and  cannot  go  on  —  you  must  wait  for  all  these 
things,  and  then  you  must  have  an  election  upon  this  very 
principle  of  changing  this  condition.  And  how  long,  I  pray 
you,  may  it  be  left  changed? 

When  questioned  as  to  what  would  be  the  probable  effect 
upon  the  railroad  company  of  such  a  condition  of  things  as 
he  has  been  describing,  he  says :  "  Take  Washington  Street 
to-day.  To-day  it  is  used  for  nothing.  Suppose  the  city 
council,  after  this  bill  is  passed,  should  conclude  the  cor- 
porations using  it  ought  to  pay  something  to  the  city.  What 
will  be  done  ?  These  gentlemen  would  not  be  told  to  rip  up 
their  tracks  and  leave  town.  We  do  not  want  to  have  the 
cars  removed  from  Washington  Street;  it  would  not  do. 
But  the  city  council,  in  conference  with  the  mayor,  which- 
ever chose  to  take  the  initiative,  they  would  say :  '  Is  it  not 
right  that  that  corporation  should  pay  something  for  the  use 
of  that  location,  and,  if  so,  how  much,  and  what  should  be 
the  terms  ? '  And  the  council  can  make  such  recommenda- 
tions as  they  choose  to  the  mayor,  and  the  mayor  can  deter- 
mine in  his  own  mind  what  he  wants  to  do." 

There  is  n't  any  law  about  it.  There  is  no  protection 
about  it.  The  city  council  can  charge  whatever  they 
choose,  or  the  mayor  can  fix  whatever  he  chooses.  He  says 
of  the  mayor :  "  He  can  then  summon  the  horsecar  people 
and  tell  them  what  is  proposed  to  do  '"  —  a  very  gracious 
thing  to  do  —  "a  lease  will  be  given,  or,  rather,  to  put  it 
differently,  make  the  lease  itself  covering  the  location ;  and 
then  let  the  council  pass  an  order  revoking  the  location, 
and  have  the  two  things  simultaneous  "  —  a  most  beautiful 
condition. 


29 

He  provides  a  way  by  which,  before  the  location  is  revoked, 
they  will  come  to  the  horsecar  people  and  say :  "  Here,  we 
propose  to  tax  you  so  much  ;  it  does  n't  make  any  difference 
whether  you  can  pay  it,  or  whether  before  you  can  pay  it 
you  have  got  to  take  the  cars  off  the  Franklin  Park  and 
Grove  Hall  lines,  you  have  got  to  pay  that  tax ; "  and  then 
the  railroad  company  may  say  half  a  loaf  is  better  than  no 
bread,  and  they  will  have  to  pay ;  all  they  have  got  to  do  is 
to  revoke  the  location  and  say,  "  We  will  give  you  the  new 
track  on  whatever  terras  we  choose."  And  he  goes  on : 
''And  that  location  takes  effect  upon  the  execution  of  the 
lease,  so  that  practically  the  city  or  town  is  not  obliged  to 
wait  until  the  corporations  come  and  say :  '  Tax  us  upon 
this  thing,'  but  they  will  take  the  initiative,  I  should  sup- 
pose, and  they  will  say  that,  wherever  they  have  a  proper 
and  existing  location,  they  shall  pay  something.  It  will  be 
a  matter  of  bargain  and  agreement  with  the  corporation,  and 
it  will  be  brought  about  in  that  way  by  the  execution  of  the 
lease  and  revocation  of  the  existing  location ;  so  the  things 
will  lap  right  on  to  one  another." 

What  a  beautiful  condition  of  things  that  will  be !  You 
have  got  a  most  beautiful  piece  of  mosaic,  in  which  the 
whole  system  may  be  upset,  by  which  the  city  council  may 
take  the  corporation  by  the  throat  and  say,  "Pay  this,  or 
you  shall  die." 

Now,  then,  I  would  like  to  ask  any  gentleman  here 
whether,  if  he  were  the  manager  of  the  West  End  Railway 
Corporation,  he  would  look  cheerfully  upon  a  proposition 
coming  at  such  a  time  and  coming  from  such  a  source? 
The  West  End  Railway  Company  is  proposing,  if  it  can  be 
secured  in  its  rights,  to  spend  millions  of  dollars  in  perfect- 
ing this  service,  and  here  is  a  bill  that  will  not  only  abso- 
lutely prevent  that,  but  will  stop  all  progress  in  every 
direction. 

Now,  then,  what  have  the  Committee  on  Cities,  who  heard 
this  argument,  and  heard  the  city  of  Boston  and  its  argu- 
ment, done?  I  say  that  the  present  city  government  of 
Boston   is   not   responsible   for    initiating    this    movement. 


30 

There  was  a  very  general  belief  throughout  the  Common- 
wealth that  the  street  railway  companies  could  afford  to  pay 
a  larger  tax,  and  that  opinion  was  honestly  held  by  gi'eat 
numbers  of  people,  and  this  question  was  heard  before  the 
Committee.  When  they  came  to  look  this  question  fairly 
and  squarely  in  the  face,  t^sy  found  that  they  were  dealing 
with  a  subject  broader  and  deeper  than  it  was  previously 
believed  to  be,  and  presented  the  bill,  which  has  been  criti- 
cized by  Mr.  Harding  and  his  associates.  Was  there  any- 
thing heard  during  all  these  four  months  that  the  bills  were 
before  this  Committee  about  referring  the  question  to  a 
commission?  Not  a  single  word.  Did  Mr.  Harding  ever 
object  to  this  tribunal?  Did  any  member  of  the  Citizens' 
Association  or  anybody  else  ever  object  to  trying  this  ques- 
tion before  the  tribunal  until  after  the  verdict  was  rendered? 
Not  a  single  one.  It  was  never  lisped  anywhere  that  this 
was  not  a  competent  tribunal ;  and  the  commission  appointed 
on  rapid  transit  has  nothing  more  to  do  with  the  surface 
system  than  it  has  to  do  with  the  steam  railroads. 

The  bill  itself  provides  that  it  shall  deal  solely  with  the 
question  of  rapid  transit,  and  now  what  does  this  Citizens' 
Association  have  to  say  about  it  ? 

Why,  because  the  Committee  have  taken  Mr.  Harding  at 
his  word,  and  acted  under  the  gracious  permission  that  he 
gave  them,  and  have  amended  his  bill  in  some  particulars, 
and  made  it  so  that  the  corporation  can  live  under  it,  what 
do  they  say?  Why,  they  are  endeavoring  to  impeach  the 
tribunal.  And  what  do  they  say  in  reference  to  it?  They 
make  objections,  and,  fortunately  for  us,  they  have  given 
their  reasons :  "  Because  the  provisions  of  the  bill  are  abso- 
lutely the  same  for  all  the  cities  and  towns  of  the  Common- 
wealth having  street  railroads."  Well,  here  is  the  bill,  and 
I  will  read  the  first  section :  — 

"  Every  street  railway  company  shall  pay  a  tax  on  its  real 
estate,  wires,  poles,  horses,  cars,  equipment,  and  machinery, 
and  every  street  railway  company  having  preferred  stock  " — 
and  there  is  n't  but  one  of  them  in  the  State  —  "  shall  pay  a 
further  tax  on  its  rails,  sleepers,  and  other  tangible  property." 


31 

Is  n't  there  any  difference  ?  Why,  the  tracks  of  the  West 
End  Street  Railway  Company  are  assessed  at  nearly  $5,000,- 
000,  and  the  West  End  Street  Railway  Company  is  taxed 
legally  upon  that,  and  every  other  street  railway  in  the  State 
is  exempt  from  that. 

The  next  objection  is :  "  Because  the  rights  and  locations 
of  street  railroad  companies,  granted  and  accepted  subject 
to  change,  are  converted,  without  certain  and  adequate 
compensation,  into  vested  property  which  even  future  Legis- 
latures cannot  change  or  aflfect  for  thirty  yeai-s  without 
indemnity  being  made  to  the  corporations."  This  is  abso- 
lutely false.     The  bill  pending  s.ays :  — 

"  But  all  obligations,  liabilities,  provisions,  restrictions,  reg- 
ulations, or  conditions  heretofore  made  or  existing,  or  which 
may  hereafter  be  made,  relating  to  the  granting,  altering,  or 
revoking  of  any  location,  or  for  the  construction  or  use  of 
any  track,  cars,  wire,  pole,  posts,  or  other  structure  in,  over, 
or  under  any  public  way  or  place,  or  relative  to  the  opening, 
occupation,  or  use  of,  or  keeping  in  repair  or  in  order,  any 
street,  by  any  such  corporation,  shall  be  and  continue  in  full 
force  and  unaffected  by  this  act." 

What  is  the  third  reason?  "  Because,  if  the  settled  policy 
of  the  Commonwealth  is  to  be  changed,  the  compensation  to 
be  paid  therefor  ought  to  be  both  certain  and  adequate." 

Well,  in  whose  judgment  shall  it  be  "  certain  and  ade- 
quate"? Shall  it  be  in  the  judgment  of  the  city  of  Boston, 
who  have  assented  to  the  bill  in  its  main  features?  Shall  it 
be  left  to  the  executive  committee  of  the  Citizens'  Associa- 
tion to  say,  or  shall  it  be  left  so  that  the  service  shall  be  the 
measure  of  adequate  compensation  ? 

I  say  that  it  ought  to  come  back  to  that  in  the  end ;  that 
the  money  that  the  corporation  receives  should  be  used  as  far 
as  possible  in  improving  the  service,  and  not  paying  new 
taxes.  That  is  in  the  line  of  true  public  policy,  whatever 
ma}-  be  said  against  it.  The  business  of  a  street  railway  cor- 
poration is  to  give  the  best  service  it  can  afiford  to  give,  and 
the  sixth  section  of  this  bill  gives  the  railroad  commissioners 
authority  to  enforce  such  service. 


32 

The  next  reason  is :  "  Because  the  tendency  of  the  bill 
will  be  to  prevent,  for  thirty  years,  all  change  and  improve- 
ment in  the  existing  method  and  means  of  street  railway 
transportation,  any  extension  of  lines  and  routes  by  existing 
companies,  as  well  as  any  'Competition  by  new  companies, 
and  any  reduction  of  the  fares  as  now  established  throughout 
the  Commonwealth." 

So  far  from  that,  the  law  is  left  exactly  as  it  is  to-day. 
Fares  can  be  reduced  exactly  as  they  can  be  to-day.  There 
is  not  a  single  change  in  this  bill  affecting  that  provision. 
"Any  fifty  legal  voters  of  a  city  or  town  who  may  be  ag- 
grieved by  the  service  rendered  by  such  corporation  operat- 
ing a  street  railway  company  may  apply  to  the  board  of 
railroad  commissioners,  and  they  shall  hear  it,"  and  they  shall 
decide  whether  or  not  the  service  shall  be  improved,  and  in 
addition  to  that,  instead  of  providing  the  same  provisions 
now  in  force  for  the  improvement  of  the  service,  it  is  pro- 
vided that  any  fifty  legal  voters,  on  application  to  the  town, 
may  compel  the  street  railway  company  to  put  in  new 
locations. 

There  is  no  such  thing  in  the  present  law.  That  is  an 
additional  duty  which  the  city  of  Boston  has  insisted  on 
putting  into  this  bill,  and  thus  it  provides  for  the  building 
of  new  locations,  whether  the  corporation  will  or  no,  upon 
the  judgment  of  the  railroad  commissioners  that  it  should 
be  done,  and  there  is  precisely  the  same  provision  in  the  law 
with  reference  to  the  fares  that  exist  in  the  statutes  to-day. 
And  what  is  the  next  point  ? 

"  Because  it  is  unwise  to  pass  any  further  law  affecting 
the  use  of  the  streets  of  Boston  for  the  transportation  of 
passengers,  until  the  whole  subject  of  such  transportation 
shall  have  been  maturely  considered  and  reported  upon  by 
a  commission  appointed  for  that  purpose." 

There  is  no  commission  appointed  for  that  purpose.  The 
rapid  transit  commission  has  not  the  first  thing  to  do  on 
this,  and  this  Committee  on  Cities  has  been  listening  to  this 
thing  for  upward  of  four  months. 

Next  they  say,  "  Because,  if  the  bill  becomes  a  law,  the 


38 

recommendations  of  the  rapid  transit  commission  cannot 
be  adopted  by  Boston  or  enforced  by  the  next  Legislature 
without  making  full  indemnity  to  the  West  End  Railway 
Company  for  any  disturbance  with  its  existing  system 
caused  thereby." 

Here  is  section  9  of  the  bill :  "  Nothing  in  _this  act  shall 
apply  to  any  elevated  or  underground  railway  or  track,  or 
shall  affect  any  provision  of  law  now  existing  or  hereafter 
made  relating  to  any  such  railway  or  track." 

Now,  the  amazing  thing  is  that  the  Citizens'  Association 
should  sign  any  such  protest  as  that.  They  have  not 
intended  to  lie  about  it,  they  have  not  intended 'to  state 
what  was  not  true,  but  there  is  absolutely  hardly  a  single 
thing  in  that  whole  protest  that  is  true.  The  only  excuse 
for  these  gentlemen  is  that  they  did  not  know  it  and  they 
do  not  know  it. 

There  is  hardly  a  single  thing  reported  upon  by  the 
Committee  on  Cities  that  changes  the  existing  law  on  the 
street  railways  one  single  particle,  except  it  says  that  no 
new  burden  shall  be  imposed  for  a  term  of  thirty  yeai*s. 
Everything  else  remains  substantially  as  it  is  to-day,  except 
that  the  burdens  and  duties  of  the  corporations  are  materi- 
ally increased. 

And  now  I  leave  it  to  you,  gentlemen,  whether  or  not 
this  is  a  serious  condition.  I  say  that  unless  the  West  End 
Street  Railway  Company  can  be  secured  in  its  rights  and 
privileges  it  can  do  nothing  more.  It  must  stop,  and  it  will 
stop.  If  the  Legislature  decides  to  have  us  wait  until  some 
commission  shall  be  appointed,  who  shall  determine  how  we 
shall  hold  these  rights,  then  we  must  be  content,  because 
we  cannot  do  otherwise.  But,  in  this  event,  further  devel- 
opments of  the  electric  system  must  stop. 

The  only  way  in  which  the  West  End  Street  Railway  can 
ever  hope  to  do  anything  with  reference  to  the  rapid  transit 
problem  is  in  the  saving  it  may  make  by  the  introduction  of 
the  electric  system.  Leave  the  railway  company  without 
any  protection  whatsoever,  then  the  thing  cannot  be  done 
at  all.     So  far  as  the  West  End  Street  Railway  Company  is 


34 

concerned,  it  will  have  no  proposition  whatsoever  to  make 
with  reference  to  the  underground  or  elevated  railway. 

We  have  the  right  to  build  an  underground  road,  and 
last  year  we  were  giyen  the  right  to  build  an  elevated 
railway,  and  I  was  then  san^^uine  that,  with  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  electric  system,  we  might  feel  able  to  tackle  that 
problem ;  but,  if  we  have  no  security  for  our  investment,  we 
cannot  do  it,  and  we  shall  not,  under  such  circumstances,  try 
to  do  it. 

If  the  Legislature  is  not  willing  to  make  the  investments 
in  street  railways  secure,  then  the  West  End  Street  Railway 
is  done?  If  the  surface  system  is  developed,  it  must  be 
done  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  trade  ;  and  the  very 
first  and  fundamental  law  of  trade  is  that  the  investment 
shall  be  made  secure. 

Now,  it  is  not  a  question  which  any  citizen  of  Boston  can 
afford  to  pass  by  and  consider  of  little  importance.  It  is  a 
thing  of  the  very  greatest  importance,  and  the  danger  is 
now  that  the  expression  of  opinion  by  a  body  like  the  Citi- 
zens' Association,  who  are  entirely  misinformed  upon  the 
bill,  and  who  do  not  appreciate  the  seriousness  of  the  situa- 
tion, may  so  far  influence  the  Legislature  as  to  prevent  them 
from  doing  what  they  know  to  be  right. 

I  cannot  fight  this  battle  alone  much  longer,  and  I  do  not 
intend  to.  I  have  spent  four  months  of  my  time  in  constant 
attendance  upon  the  Legislature,  in  constant  care  and  thought 
upon  this  question.  I  am  interested  in  it.  I  know  that  the 
welfare  of  this  community  is  bound  up  in  this  transportation 
question,  and  I  have  done  all  that  I  could  do,  in  fidelity  not 
only  to  my  stockholders,  but  to  this  community,  in  endeavor- 
ing to  solve  this  problem,  but  I  can  do  nothing  more,  unless 
you  and  the  Legislature  and  the  people  of  Massachusetts  are 
willing  that  the  investments  that  go  into  this  enterprise  shall 
be  made  secure.  If  they  are  not  made  secure,  then  of  course 
we  must  stop,  whatever  are  the  consequences. 

After  the  applause  which  Mr.  Whitney's  address  elicited 
had  subsided,  Colonel  R.  S.  Rockwell  offered  the  following 
resolution  :  — 


36 

''  Resolved,  that  the  residents  of  Roxbury  appreciate  the 
efforts  of  the  West  End  Railway,  under  its  present  manage- 
ment, to  improve  its  service  and  to  render  it  more  nearly  ade- 
quate to  the  public  requirements,  and  they  look  with  disfavor 
upon  any  change  of  Legislative  policy  which  will  tend  to 
hamper  the  railway  corporation.  On  the  other  hand,  they 
believe  the  bill  reported  by  the  Committee  on  Cities,  and  now 
pending,  relating  to  the  taxes  on  property  and  franchises  of 
street  railway  corporations,  is  not  only  just  to  the  corpora- 
tions, but  is  in  the  true  line  of  the  public  interest." 

General  John  L.  Swift  seconded  the  motion  for  the  adop- 
tion of  the  resolution.  Mr.  Paul  Kendricken  and^  others 
spoke  in  its  favor,  and  it  was  unanimously  adopted. 


